Athens Christian's Jordan Pickerel is the Athens Banner-Herald boys track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

Athens Christian's Jordan Pickerel is the Athens Banner-Herald boys track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

Athens Christian's Jordan Pickerel is the Athens Banner-Herald boys track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

Athens Christian's Jordan Pickerel is the Athens Banner-Herald boys track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

Prince Avenue's Anna Machovec is the Athens Banner-Herald girls track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

Prince Avenue's Anna Machovec is the Athens Banner-Herald girls track & field Player of the Year. (AJ Reynolds/Staff)

At their respective state track meets, Athens Christian’s Jordan Pickerel and Prince Avenue Christian’s Anna Machovec picked the perfect time to turn in their best performances of the spring.

At the Georgia Olympics in Jefferson, Pickerel — a senior who signed with Clemson earlier this year — won Class A Private School state championships in the shot put (57 feet, 7 inches, best in any classification) and discus (a state record 168-1), recording personal records in both events and helping to lead the Eagles to easily claim their third consecutive state crown.

At the Girls State Championships in Albany, Machovec — a rising senior who also excels in volleyball and basketball — captured Class A Private School state laurels in the shot put (38-11) and discus (133-4), both new personal bests.

For their achievements this spring, Pickerel is the Athens Banner-Herald All-Northeast Georgia Male Track Athlete of the Year and Machovec is the Female Track Athlete of the Year.

For Pickerel, this year’s state meet offered an opportunity at redemption after he was only able to qualify for the shot put as a junior despite being one of the best throwers in the state.

“Last year, I was probably a little cocky, but it was nice to come back and be able to do both events,” Pickerel said.

At Jefferson this season, the Eagles basically won the Class A Private School title on the first day, thanks in no small part to Pickerel’s 20 points.

Although the 2012 season ended with Pickerel holding but one state championship medal, Athens Christian coach Tim Cummings said he believes the setback helped him in the long run.

“Last year, Jordan won state in the shot and would have won state in the discus — he was 15 feet in front of everybody going into sectionals,” Cummings said. “I think that experience really helped mature him because he realized he had to stay focused and humble. It helped him learn how to handle things.

“It seemed like a tough thing at the moment but it ended up being a great thing for him because it was a little bit of a wake-up call and made him realize he needed to approach this differently. This year he was just automatic.”

Machovech’s production at state represented 20 of the Wolverines’ 30.5 points (they finished ninth among 26 teams) and was made even more impressive by the fact that just four months earlier, she had been slowed by a shoulder injury suffered playing basketball.

“She was four to six weeks behind schedule this year,” said Jill Machovec, Prince Avenue coach and Anna’s mother. “She usually is throwing in January and February, even though she’s playing basketball … it took some time. It was questionable about how long before she could start throwing and she started out lightly and it didn’t bother her and it just progressed from there. It was an answered prayer that she was even able to throw this season, but she threw with no pain involved.”

Machovec, who transferred to Prince Avenue from Dacula (where her father David coaches cross country and track) finished the season riding a 12-meet winning streak, which included winning the area and region titles. In her first meet of the season, she threw the discus 114-9 and the shot 35-2.5, but by the time she got to Albany, she was remarkably improved in both events, with almost 20 more feet on her discus attempts.

“I was super happy with the entire season, especially when I PR’d three times in a row at the end of the year,” said Machovec, whose brother and sister were both throwers on the UGA track team. “I’d been throwing between 125-130 (feet) in practice, but not in an actual meet. But when I hit it in a meet, my confidence grew.”

Pickerel, who also won region and area championships this spring, competed in 11 meets for Athens Christian this season and finished first in both the shot and discus in 10 of those competitions. His only non-championship finish came in mid-March at the Jefferson Relays, when he came in second in the discus.

“I don’t think I could have asked for much more from this season,” he said. “I was undefeated in the shot and I got second place once with the discus, so that was a pretty good year. The state meet was fun. We knew we could score a lot of points if we did everything right. (Teammate) Joseph Ruggiers and I had some fun and we threw really well and helped our team.”

Cummings said he believes that at Clemson, Pickerel will become even more productive.

“I don’t think he’ll be a freshman that comes in saying, ‘I’m here and all of y’all look out,” Cummings said. “He’s a quiet kid, but after that first meet, they’ll say, ‘He’s going to help us.’ I think he’ll continue to throw further and further, like he did this year, and I think he’s going to be great at the next level. He’s been a great leader for us and we’re going to miss him.”

Machovec, who has expressed an interest in attempting to play two sports in college, assents that it’s track that’s likely to be her ticket, although she likes basketball better.

“I’m looking at trying to improve a lot in both events and maybe getting up to what my sister threw her senior year (145-0 in discus and 44-0 in the shot),” she said. “I threw 40 feet my sophomore year and I hope to do it again. I’m thinking the lower 40s as I build up more strength.

“Basketball is my true love but when you get to college, basketball is like life. It might be easier to take the track route, but if I can find a school I really want to go to and I can play basketball, I would do that. I don’t really know of anybody who has competed in two sports in college, but I think it could be done. It would be hard but maybe I’m the kind of person that could do it.”